The following article is reprinted with permission from the Eagle-Tribune newspaper in Massachusetts.

Role Models Come through for Teens
By Fernanda Santos

Photo courtesy of the Eagle-Tribune.

METHUEN—Twelve-year-old Jazmine M. Peña may not yet know what she wants to be when she grows up, but after eight months in a Lawrence mentoring program, she definitely knows who she wants to be.

"I just want to be a nice, fair person, someone who does things right," she said. "And whatever it is that I do, I hope I'll make enough money to buy a big house for me and my family."

Jazmine and eight other Breen School students, ages 10 to 15, gathered at Mamma Mary's Restaurant to indulge themselves with several orders of French fries and, most importantly, to celebrate the end of almost one school year as members of the Quota International Mentoring Program.

Through a series of talks on drugs, sex, and career opportunities given by area professionals, the program teaches inner-city teens about issues that range from self-esteem to self-defense.

"I just wanted to see what this program was all about, but once I started, I got hooked into it," said Paola Catalino, 13, one of the participants. "I really liked listening to what the police officer and the doctors that talked to us go through in their jobs. It helped me decide if those are things I would want to do in the future."

Paola said she wants to be a nurse "because they make a lot of money and really care about people."

Quota's mentoring program kicked off in 1994 and crowned its first group of "graduates" in 1999. In October, a new group of teenage girls joined in. The girls have since been meeting once a month with the volunteers and educators who lead the activities.

"If we can save only one girl, if we can put her on the right road, it means that we've done our job," said Rita A. Bonanno [chair of the Lawrence club's Mentoring Program]. "I think we've put some girls on the right road, and the ones in this group are doing just fine."

Grabbing the attention of 10- to 15-year-old girls is not an easy task, but if at least part of the stay-out-of-trouble message sticks in their minds, her mission will have been accomplished, said Dania L. Amador, program coordinator with the Housing Authority's Drug Abuse Prevention office and one of the mentors.

"It's important to have this group of girls in a program like this because it helps keep them away from the streets," Miss Amador said.

© The Eagle-Tribune
Published with permission.